Starting the week by writing the Happy List is something I’ve been doing for the last few years. It’s my chance to sit down and reflect on the little or big things that made me smile in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures.

Five Happy Things {Week 49/2025}

We started the week with Advent calendars. This year the teens received a Tony’s Chocoloney and Guylian advent calendar which they chose themselves (Little Sis went out and bought herself a second chocolate calendar too!). The husband chose a Joe & Seph’s popcorn calendar and I bought myself the Pretty Fabrics and Trims Christmas Eve box to make over Advent (of course I’m still stitching last years Advent Box so it’s highly unlikely I’ll be opening it).

We’re trying to do small Christmassy things throughout December so popped out for a Christmassy hot chocolate on our local high street. We also iced the Gingerbread Christmas Jumper biscuit kit from M&S we bought, and immediately ate them.

A friend told us about the Too Good To Go app and we tried it out over the weekend. You can rescue surplus food at a discount and it was fun to try.

This year we bought a real Christmas tree from our local garden centre. We’ve used an artificial tree for the last few years but decided on a real tree this year. We made two trips to scout them out, then went back with the teens to choose one. It’s all decorated too, which feels early for us.

A while ago I made a lovely quilt block and then hung it up. I saw people had added quilt blocks to jumpers and denim jackets, so thought I would try using my quilt block in some way. I added a really thin piece of binding to the quilt block, which was super fiddly. Hopefully this week I can stitch it on to my favourite jumper.